(Un)solving global challenges

Abstract

Recent discussions on the African short story tend to focus on the efforts to promote short-story writing, especially through literary prizes. Critics sceptical of such prizes argue that writers may be tempted to write only on topics that the audience hosting the prize is eager to read about. Only rarely do such conversations on the African short story critically engage with the stories. Doing so would reveal that four recent award-winning African short stories, Folarin?s ?Miracle', Bulawayo?s ?Hitting Budapest', Osondu?s ?Waiting', and Owuor?s ?The Weight of Whispers', set into relief global problems such as poverty, hunger, political strife and immigration to carry a caustic critique of the very audience to whose tastes they are believed to pander. I locate this critique in examples of refusals of assistance, roundabout comments and misconstruals of meaning as the ways in which the solutions are deferred. I call these examples gaps between problems and solutions that all four...